Vision and screens

The time we spend every day in front of computer screens, tablets and mobile phones, or car dashboards is now quite important. Inevitably, therefore, the main sensory organs involved, the eyes, undergo a demanding process of focusing and converging. CVS or Computer Vision Syndrome is defined as all the disturbances and effects on vision from the use of these devices:

• Fatigue due to constant adaptation and focus over short distances
• Dry eye due to reduced blinks
• Redness and image of irritated eyes
• Blurred vision due to strenuous focusing
• The non-use of any necessary optical correction (glasses or contact lenses) acts compensating and aggravating the above
• HEV radiation (violet light) emitted by the sun and state-of-the-art screens has been blamed for degenerations inside the eyes (maculopathy)

To improve symptoms, some solutions are suggested
1. Frequent breaks (about 1 minute every 20 minutes) in which you will look somewhere far away, perhaps out the window, to rest your visual system from constant adjustment.
2. Improvement of space, lighting and ergonomics. The lighting of the room should not be too low, but definitely lower than that of a sunny or a very bright office. The top of the screen should be at eye level, and if you’re looking at the keyboard or printed text, everything should be at the same distance from the eyes if possible.
3. Blink more often.
4. Contact lens wearers do show increased inconvenience during computer use. They must speak with their optician-optometrist to possibly modify the quality of the lenses they wear, the type of cleaning liquid or to be offered other alternatives.
5. Those who have a low prescription, should wear their glasses on demanding environments, as this alone will greatly improve comfort. It goes without saying that these glasses should have anti-reflective coatings on their lenses for greater clarity.

If the above is not enough, then further solutions to glasses should be considered:
• For those under 40 there are special glasses that reduce the need for intense adjustment, offering extra hours of comfortable use (type AntiFatigue)
• For people over 40, where the correction of presbyopia is needed, suggested solutions are indoor glasses (medium-close) and secondarily multifocal glasses.
• Blue radiation protection glasses (HEV) come to meet a need created by the launch of LED and TFT screens as well as energy-saving lamps. All these types of lighting, as well as sunlight, emit, among others, HEV radiation, which penetrates all eye barriers and reaches the retina where it gradually leads to damage (macular degeneration, etc.).
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As the above symptoms manifest differently from person to person, cooperation with specialists is necessary to determine the best solutions.